Young leaves showing purple-red pigmentation

Leaves showing the course teeth. False whorl leaf, stem leaf and basal leaf.

M. 'Dalemain' flowers showing blue-purple colouring.

The ellipsoidal shaped fruit capsule.

Meconopsis 'Dalemain' is a tall, leafy, robust cultivar with an affinity to Meconopsis gakyidiana (syn. M grandis subsp. orientalis). Large numbers can be seen in a woodland setting at Dalemain in Cumbria, where it was introduced by Mrs Sylvia McCosh from Huntfield in Scotland. (Meconopsis 'Huntfield' is a similar clone.) It is very likely that she bought the original clones from Jack Drake’s Inshriach Nursery as she describes buying M. grandis from him in her book ‘Between Two Gardens’.

Description

Flowers of M. 'Dalemain' can be mauve-blue, or purple-blue. Usually 3 to 4 flowers emerge from the false whorl and often there are 1 to 2 more flowers from the axils at the top of the stem. The forward-facing flowers are saucer shaped and held high above the false whorl. Each flower has four oval-shaped petals, which at first are deeply overlapping.

The style is long with a prominent stigma. The fruit capsule is elliptical in shape and covered in bristles.

The emerging leaves are broad with red-purple pigmentation. They are covered with straw-coloured hairs. As the leaves mature the pigmentation fades and they become green. The basal leaves have a long petiole and are elliptical in shape. The stem leaves clasp the stem. All leaves have uneven teeth.